A huge part of Nigeria’s total debt profile of N33 trillion were incurred by administrations before President Muhammadu Buhari’s, Senate Committee chairman on Finance, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, has said.
The lawmaker disclosed this on Wednesday during consideration of the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP).
He disclosed that majority of the loans being repaid presently by the Buhari administration were ones accumulated from the times of the military to those of the PDP administration under former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, between 1999 and 2015.
Mr Adeola was called upon by Senate President Ahamd Lawan to provide insights on how the loans were accumulated.
The senator said: “The borrowing you are saying is accumulated borrowing. It is not a borrowing of this administration alone, it is a borrowing that stems from the days of the military to the days when the democratic dispensation started.
“It is an accumulated loan, it is not a loan that says that it is the current administration of President Buhari that has borrowed.
“It is a loan that has been borrowed by the previous administration – the Obasanjo, the Jonathan, the Yar’Adua of this world.
“[And] since the business of government is a continuum, the President of the day has no choice but to continue to pay back all these loans that have been borrowed by the previous administrations.
“More than three-quarter of these loans you’re seeing were borrowed from the previous administrations, and we are paying back – we are doing what is supposed to be done, the way it is supposed to be done,” he said.
“So, when my colleague said that for every N67 of any loan that was borrowed, we are using to pay, he should know that more than N60 of it are loans borrowed by the previous administration. And that is where we are.”
Senate President Ahmad Lawan, in his concluding remarks, blamed Nigeria’s economic predicament on the failure of past governments to prioritize the provision of critical infrastructure.
He said the situation has left the present administration with no other viable option but to seek external borrowing to fund capital expenditures in the national budget.
“I believe that we have learnt so much from the clarification which the Chairman of the Joint Committee gave.
“Let me say this, when you don’t make hay while the sun shines, this is the kind of thing you face.
“When we had plenty of money, we didn’t prioritize the construction of infrastructure in Nigeria. We wasted our resources when we had much.
“Today, we realize we need to construct infrastructure because that is the only way to develop the country. Unfortunately, we don’t have the kind of resources we had before.
“Now, our options are very limited because our revenues are limited. I agree with all our colleagues who said we need to reduce borrowing.
